Focus On: DRM: Mastering the Virtual Handshake

That’s how easy it is to apply donor relationship management. You listen to your donor, try to understand her wants and needs, customize your communications and services, and measure the impact. And, with some upfront planning, you can set up parts of your DRM program to run automatically.

With a little LUCK
DRM — or CRM in the for-profit world — often is perceived as complex, expensive and time consuming when, in fact, it can be quite simple. Organizations that want to have more personalized and profitable relationships with their donors can rely on LUCK™:

1. Listen. Remember a broad range of information about your donors, including names, addresses, preferences, profitability, purchase patterns and complaints.
2. Understand. Review, analyze and data mine that information to understand what donors want and to segment your most valuable relationships.
3. Customize. Put that understanding into action by customizing everything that can make a difference to your donors — from your communications to your mission and services.
4. Know. Measure your efforts so you’ll know if you’re making a difference.

The above story is based on real-life events through a nonprofit organization called Halftime. Its constituents regularly say that they feel as if someone at Halftime has been “reading their journal” because its communications speak so directly to the issues in their lives.